Marin Voice: Campaign reform is needed, but Prop. 32 is unfair

THE League of Women Voters of Marin County has been working for greater transparency of campaign contributions for the past several years. So, it would be logical to think that the League would be supporting Proposition 32.

Not so.

The intent of Proposition 32 — also known as the Special Exemptions Act — is to "ban both corporate and union contributions to candidates."

So why have the League of Women Voters of California, California Common Cause, and the California Teachers Association joined together to oppose the measure?

As usual, the devil is in the details.

According to opponents, Proposition 32 masquerades as campaign-finance reform but actually contains exemptions that would increase the influence of business interests and wealthy individuals. It is not what it seems; it promises "political reform" but has been designed by special interests to help themselves and harm their opponents.

This measure prohibits both unions and corporations from using payroll-deducted funds for political purposes, so-called "paycheck protection," which sounds balanced. But almost no corporations use payroll-deducted funds for political giving, so this prohibition is really aimed just at the unions.

That's not a fair or balanced approach to reform.

Corporations could still use corporate funds for allowed political activities without permission from individual stockholders to do so.

In addition, corporate executives can personally fund political campaigns that benefit their corporations; Proposition 33 about auto insurance on this ballot is an example of this.

Prop. 32's restrictions on corporations do not apply to large numbers of business entities, including limited liability companies, limited partnerships, real estate investment trusts, and sole proprietorships.

Prop. 32 prohibits corporations and unions from making direct contributions to candidates but does not prohibit them from contributing funds to ballot-measure committees.

Despite its claims, Prop. 32 will not take money out of politics because it exempts Super PACs and independent expenditure committees from its provisions.

The Supreme Court's Citizens United decision allows these groups to spend unlimited amounts of money. They have already spent more than $95 million in California elections since 2004.

Prop. 32 does nothing to deal with that.

Some may say, "This is unbalanced, but it's a step forward." However, the sponsors of Prop. 32 are trying to use our anger and mistrust about what is happening in Sacramento to change the rules for their own benefit.

Restricting just unions and their workers will result in a political system that favors corporate special interest over everyone else. Prop. 32 was intentionally designed to do that.

If campaign finance reform is to pass, it must be a fair and even-handed effort to close loopholes in the law, rather than a purely partisan effort to eviscerate political opponents.

All money in politics must be treated equally.

Vote "no" on Proposition 32.

Margy Eller of Strawberry is president of the League of Women Voters of Marin County.